Node.js 5.0 Released • Hacker News Board

Re: Node.js 5.0 Released

#11

Post by Mchl » Fri, Oct 30, 2015, 1:46 PM UTC

Touche wrote: post #6

quarterto wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Node now follows Semver. If you look through the changelog, there's more than a dozen changes that are breaking.

That doesn't answer the question. Node 4.0 was released a month ago. Why are there so many breaking changes in 1 month?

From what I understand the 4.0.0 release was to merge NodeJS and io.js into one stable product as soon as possible. 5.0.0 now goes further in integrating features that were not ready to release at that time. Further major version updates are to be less frequent.

Re: Node.js 5.0 Released

#12

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Oct 30, 2015, 1:46 PM UTC

Touche wrote: post #6

quarterto wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Node now follows Semver. If you look through the changelog, there's more than a dozen changes that are breaking.

That doesn't answer the question. Node 4.0 was released a month ago. Why are there so many breaking changes in 1 month?

[deleted]

Re: Node.js 5.0 Released

#13

Post by cmpb » Fri, Oct 30, 2015, 1:46 PM UTC

Touche wrote: post #6

quarterto wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Node now follows Semver. If you look through the changelog, there's more than a dozen changes that are breaking.

That doesn't answer the question. Node 4.0 was released a month ago. Why are there so many breaking changes in 1 month?

Mainly the upgrade of V8. The release of v5 so soon after v4 is a special scenario prompted by the odd timing of the release of the new V8. It's worth noting that v5 is not an "LTS" release (that is, it won't have the same long-term support that v4 does). I believe even number releases are LTS releases.

Re: Node.js 5.0 Released

#14

Post by alexwebb2 » Fri, Oct 30, 2015, 1:47 PM UTC

bfrog wrote: post #9

Uhh, wait, wasn't nodejs 4.0 only like a month ago? So are there going to be breaking changes every few months now?

Sort of, yeah. They're taking a very strict approach to semver - if it could potentially break anyone's code out there, it's a breaking change that warrants a major version bump.

I'd wager that the vast majority of Node APIs currently on 4.x could swap in 5.0 without any issues.

Re: Node.js 5.0 Released

#15

Post by Killswitch » Fri, Oct 30, 2015, 1:48 PM UTC

cdnsteve wrote: post #7

I recently looked at using Node for a simple API backend. ES6 seems like it's not there yet, the stability of Node makes me wary. Constant changes seem exhausting to keep up with. For a simple microservice api you don't want to be upgrading it every 3 days. The continuous change doesn't make sense to me. Trying to get up to speed on all the Node.js ecosystem feels exhausting, only to have it change a few weeks later.…

Node.js keeps in line pretty heavily with V8, so if you're keeping up with changes in Chrome's JavaScript engine, you're already keeping up with Node.

Plus you don't have to always upgrade to latest and greatest. If your app works fine in 4.2 and there's no crazy security issues you need to upgrade for, don't. 4.2 is LTS so it's going to get supported for a long time.

Re: Node.js 5.0 Released

#16

Post by cmpb » Fri, Oct 30, 2015, 1:48 PM UTC

alexwebb2 wrote: post #5

Glad to see they've bumped up the V8 version so the spread operator can be used. Things are really moving along at a good clip since the merge with io.js.

Yes, I'm very excited about the spread operator! I've been spoiled by Firefox.

Re: Node.js 5.0 Released

#17

Post by morgante » Fri, Oct 30, 2015, 1:49 PM UTC

cdnsteve wrote: post #7

I recently looked at using Node for a simple API backend. ES6 seems like it's not there yet, the stability of Node makes me wary. Constant changes seem exhausting to keep up with. For a simple microservice api you don't want to be upgrading it every 3 days. The continuous change doesn't make sense to me. Trying to get up to speed on all the Node.js ecosystem feels exhausting, only to have it change a few weeks later.…

There is continuous change, but the changes tend to be quite small. You can also safely stay on older versions for a long time (4.2 is LTS).

Re: Node.js 5.0 Released

#18

Post by netcraft » Fri, Oct 30, 2015, 1:49 PM UTC

Touche wrote: post #6

quarterto wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Node now follows Semver. If you look through the changelog, there's more than a dozen changes that are breaking.

That doesn't answer the question. Node 4.0 was released a month ago. Why are there so many breaking changes in 1 month?

Thats not the question that was asked, yours is a different question. The main reason is because they are tracking v8 versions. This one hits v8 4.6 - v8 is released every 6 months and we will see node v6 in April.

Really what has happened is that v4 was a bit behind, and v5 is right on schedule which is why it seems to be changing so fast.

Re: Node.js 5.0 Released

#19

Post by sotojuan » Fri, Oct 30, 2015, 1:51 PM UTC

cdnsteve wrote: post #7

I recently looked at using Node for a simple API backend. ES6 seems like it's not there yet, the stability of Node makes me wary. Constant changes seem exhausting to keep up with. For a simple microservice api you don't want to be upgrading it every 3 days. The continuous change doesn't make sense to me. Trying to get up to speed on all the Node.js ecosystem feels exhausting, only to have it change a few weeks later.…

You could've used Node 4.2 LTS and a simple Express server (is Flask the Express of Python?) and had as much stability. That said, I do understand your skepticism and concern.

Re: Node.js 5.0 Released

#20

Post by matwood » Fri, Oct 30, 2015, 1:51 PM UTC

cdnsteve wrote: post #7

I recently looked at using Node for a simple API backend. ES6 seems like it's not there yet, the stability of Node makes me wary. Constant changes seem exhausting to keep up with. For a simple microservice api you don't want to be upgrading it every 3 days. The continuous change doesn't make sense to me. Trying to get up to speed on all the Node.js ecosystem feels exhausting, only to have it change a few weeks later.…

JS in general moves fast and packages range from great to WTF in quality. I would suggest using Babel(or something similar) for all future JS development. That way you can use ES2015/2016 features now and have them work in most environments.

I have a built a small API using express and passport and so far these node changes have not impacted my code.

Another option for fast API development is Java 8 with SpringBoot and Jetty. People hate on Java and Spring, but the latest versions of both are very powerful and easy to get going. If you end up needing more it is there.